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travel blog…OF DOOM! Day 1/2

For the next ten days (give or take), thoughtgrenade is going to shift it’s purpose and souly document my mid-summer jaunt to Philadelphia and New York City. WHY have I jaunted to Philadelphia and New York City for ten days you ask? I can summarize that in two points:

one: I fuckin wanted to.

and two: theres an abnormal amount of good shows happening and good people living in both these cities over the next ten days (and, I’m going to assume, beyond…but the next ten days are just crazy.)

Although I suppose a better question would be why I think anyone will care about my travels enough to read about them. The short answer is: I don’t expect anyone to care about anything I write in this blog, but this “travel blog” format provides me ample room for both introspection and blatant social critique and I’m really not one to pass such things up.

So lets get to this:

Left Boston yesterday (with my lovely and beautiful travel companion Ms. T) via Megabus. Now, for those of you unsure what Megabus is; like similar company BoltBus, it is a discount bus line created by one of the major bus lines in order to put established “china town bus” service Fung Wah out of business. Of course this isn’t actually their admitted purpose, but anyone with eyes can see that’s the case (and I’m pretty sure that even blind people with any kind of business training could probably see it too.) Now, when I say discount bus service, I mean I paid 27.50 for my entire round trip, which is certifiably insane given the current price of oil, but I am not going to complain (and I WILL laugh at any Greyhound bus I may pass on the road.) After a thoroughly enjoyable (and more importantly, wi-fi enabled) ride and stopover in New York City we came to the first event of note of this trip: traveling through Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Now for those of you who are unsure, Cherry Hill is the location of the beloved White Castle restaurant being sought out in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle (not be to be confused with it’s horrible HORRIBLE sequel, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanimo Bay……I admit that you readers couldn’t possibly confuse the two, especially since I wrote out their full titles, I just wanted to roast that piece of shit waste of my money one more time.) While in actuality there is no White Castle in Cherry Hill (I later found out that it’s actually in New Brunswick), I was rather excited to unearth one of those “if you’re actually from the area where a movie was set then you know how much they fucked it up” scenarios since the multi-plex that was across from the Burger Palace in the movie, where Anthony Anderson told Harold and Kumar to go to Cherry Hill for White Castle, is actually IN Cherry Hill. I see through you, Kal Penn, I SEE THROUGH YOU!

Following that astonishing bit of Film Geek-dom, I found myself in Philadelphia, where I eventually fell asleep. Thus ending Day 1/2.

Since this is the first post of this “travel blog” (and yes, “travel blog” will be in quotation marks for the duration), I’ve decided I will publically post my “list of things to do while on this mini-vacation.” Admittedly, this list is still growing, but as of right now the following will be done over the next ten days (provided I don’t get my legs broke):

-wake up drunk

-high five Jason Shevchuk for reuniting None More Black (and then, when he isn’t paying attention, punch him in the gut for breaking up Kid Dynamite and Lagrecia (even though I fully acknowledge that we wouldn’t have Paint It Black if Kid Dynamite never broke up…but I think the cosmos would ultimately forgive that one…actually maybe not…………..okay, only for Lagrecia then.))

-Give Chuck Ragan a big’ ol hug.

-Call into my radio show from the top of the Rocky stairs.

-figure out the structural flaws of the liberty bell.

-See Hancock or Wanted and marathon Metalocalypse while intoxicated.

-Give a member of Cloak/Dagger a copy of their CJLO Live Session personally.

-Watch Cloverfield, in New York, then go for a walk (this goal originally had “…while drunk” at the end of it…but that would probably result in my death and/or the pooing of my pants.)

-Get into a baseball fight with a yankees fan (with no less than three Red Sox fans backing me up…I’m dumb but I ain’t stupid.)

-More Goals to Come……….

Additionally, I mentioned the incredible amount of quality live music earlier, so before we conclude: I intend (which is worlds different from “I plan to”) to see the following bands within the next fourteen days:

The Smoking Popes, None More Black, Bearface, The Ergs, None More Black (again), Clouds, Torche, Boris, Monotonix, Matt and Kim, Paint It Black, Dillinger Four, The Circle Jerks, Paint It Black (again), Thursday, Hot Water Music and finally, once I return to Boston, American Steel. (AKA every band I have ever liked. ever.)